After the great success of the last edition of Summer Fancy Food in New York, the Region of Calabria returns to the “Javits Center in New York City”, headquarters of the exhibition dedicated to food and beverage specialties, largest and most important in North America and currently considered by many experts to be the most important in the world. Calabria is represented by as many as 16 companies and confirms themselves as the Italian Region trendsetter.

This year the Calabria Region will celebrate its 64th edition participating in Summer Fancy food, presenting its typical products, and with a show cooking station in the River Pavilion of the Jacob Javits Center.

On the last 8th of June in Nicotera, the first international meeting on the Mediterranean diet was held and declared Calabria as “Motherland of the Mediterranean Diet” and highlighted the region to the international scientific community as having many “Villages of Longevity” where they live many centuries. In brief:

Calabria: You eat well and you live long!

Experts of the Mediterranean diet: Luigi Fontana, professor in Nutritional Sciences at the Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences of the University of Brescia and at the Washington University School of Medicine of St. Louis in Missouri, Giuseppe Passarino, professor of Genetics at the University of Calabria and director of the laboratory of Genetics of longevity, in Cosenza, Antonino De Lorenzo, professor of nutrition and human nutrition at the University of Tor Vergata in Rome, Antonio Gradilone, sports doctor, spoke of genetics, epigenetics, biomedicine, longevity, recalibrating the concept of a Mediterranean diet.

Biodiversity, quality, culture. This is the mix that characterizes the rich Calabrian basket.

A truly inviting list of delicacies inextricably linked to the territory of origin include cedar, chili peppers, mushrooms, olives, pickles, torrone di Bagnara, dairy products and premium meats of podolica and black pigs, fish, pasta, rye bread, desserts and drinks.

On the 1st of July, the exceptional testimonial Lidia Bastianich, Ambassador of Calabria to the World, accredited to the discovery of specialties and regional recipes, and also protagonist of the work of the international meeting of Nicotera, will meet companies participating in the collective exhibition in the Calabria pavilion set up at Summer Fancy Food.

A clear strategy of developing one’s own excellences, an effective internationalization plan and a “Rosso Calabria” brand created to protect the excellence of the territory are the primates to be considered at the forefront of the Calabria Region, along with territorial marketing and international hospitality.

A clear example of this is the “Più Trentanove” restaurant in Madrid, where you can experience the scents of Calabria. Among the stoves, the raw materials, which come directly from the places of origin, are embodied by the expert hands of Manfredi Bosco. The chef from Cosenza, 38, has been driving the restaurant kitchen for a few months with a menu dedicated to Calabria, alongside the classics of Italian tradition.

“The United States is fascinated by the gastronomic excellence of Calabria” affirms Danielle Pergament, journalist of the New York Times. The reporter has placed Calabria among the 52 unmissable destinations for 2017.

“It will be food, it will be the climate, but it will also be a way of life, but in Calabria we need to find a niche “ – says Lidia Bastianich – “here there are unique qualities that today are hard to find in the world.”

“With the birth of the first meeting on the Mediterranean diet, a path is born” – says the President of the Calabria Region Mario Oliverio – “a path that aims to enhance the Mediterranean diet, to make people understand that eating with the Mediterranean diet means living better.”